With regards to rabies post exposure prophylaxis, there is a change from human rabies immunoglobulin to equine rabies immunoglobulin. As quite often veterinarians are the first contact with people that were potentially exposed to a rabid animal, please assist in preventing rabies in humans within the country.

Please find the link regarding the use of unregistered vaccines against AHS for your attention and distribution.

14 Novemebr 2016

Dear Colleagues

There has been a reported AHS case in the Kuruman area. The state veterinarian has been advised and samples have been submitted for confirmation. Initial date of detection was the 8th November.

I would like to thank the State Vet Dr Lea Shuda for the proactive and prompt response to this report, and for letting us know so quickly.

Regards

Camilla Weyer

3 May 2016

Dear Colleagues

There have been a number of further confirmed cases within the AHS containment area in the AHS surveillance zone since Friday the 30th April.

3 of these cases are outside of the 5km radius, and they are/ were clinical cases. One of these cases was a weanling, that subsequently was euthanased.

The symptoms of the weanling were not typical for AHS, but lung oedema was observed, so please remain vigilant and please report any suspicious or possible cases to us asap. The sooner we have the report the sooner we can act.

A special thank you must go to Prof Guthrie who gave up his Saturday afternoon to run these samples as a priority.

At present the containment area will not change, but will be re-evaluated next week. A situation report will be released with a press release asap in next week, but we wanted to ensure that you are all kept up to date.

To many of you this may be already common knowledge but it seems not all know which passports are acceptable as a movement document for horses into and within the AHS controlled area.

For any horse that needs to be moved between AHS zones, and from the infected zone into the AHS controlled area, ONLY the following passports comply:

The SAEF passport: FEI group IX passport (the old blue ones and the new green ones)

The NHRA passports (green jockey club passports used for thoroughbreds)

The import export council passports (Red passports issued by the NHRA)

And since September 2015 the Red Studbook passports, BUT only the new ones that have a picture in them that looks like the one attached.ALL THE OLD STUDBOOK PASSPORTS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR MOVEMENT, AND ACTUALLY HAVE NEVER BEEN ON THE ACCEPTED LIST OF PASSPORTS.

The vaccinations for AHS must have been done by a veterinarian, and the ID page of the passport must have been completed by a veterinarian.

So if you have a client that is planning to move a horse and you are either unsure of the passport the horse has, or you have realised that it either does not have a passport, or it is one of the old Studbook passports that DO NOT comply for movement, please contact myself or Danielle Pienaar so we can advise you as to how we can rectify the situation.

FOR THOSE GOING TO SHOWS OUTSIDE OF THE CONTROLLED AREA, ALSO PLEASE NOTE THAT A MOVEMENT APPLICATION FORM MUST BE COMPLETED. FIND ATTACHED. This application is also required for any other movement of horses from the infected zone into the AHS controlled area.

Please contact us if we can help in any way further, or if anything is unclear.